Musings, leadership tidbits and quotes posted by a retired Navy Captain (really just a high performing 2nd Class Petty Officer) who hung up his uniform a bit too early. He still wears his Navy service on his sleeve. He needs to get over that. "ADVANCE WARNING - NO ORIGINAL THOUGHT!" A "self-appointed" lead EVANGELIST for the "cryptologic community". Keeping CRYPTOLOGY alive-one day and Sailor at a time. 2015 is 80th Anniversary of the Naval Security Group.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Efforts at self-synchronization - trust is essential

“Self-synchronization is the ability of a well-informed force to organize and synchronize complex activities from the bottom up. Self-synchronization is achieving the goals of the organization without or with less leaders than in a hierarchical organization. 'A priori knowledge' enables individuals to self-synchronize because they have a shared understanding of the situation."

The creation of self-synchronization through unity of effort, commander's intent, rules of engagement, and battlespace knowledge is discussed as a starting point to create self-synchronization. The next steps in achieving self-synchronization are to empower individuals by releasing them from the multitude of requirements currently in place and the expectation and acceptance of the military as an adaptive learning organization.

Trust appears to be an important factor for self-synchronization to be successful. Trust in information, people, and equipment is needed for self-synchronization to work effectively. Trust is needed for commanders to give up some personal control and rely more on the staff.

Trust is important for self-synchronization because teams function dispersed and therefore relatively autonomous. Members of military teams have to know each other well and need trust each other. The team also needs to trust other units and other personnel that are located elsewhere. According to the interviewees, trust is closely related to the situational awareness. Knowledge about the capabilities and expertise of other units is essential for self-synchronizing the efforts of the team.

The Information Dominance Corps Self-Synchronization efforts grew from an understanding among the IDC officer corps that they would have to take the initiative to share information across the Corps. They are doing this every day. Every member of the IDC has the opportunity to participate in this process and elevate the level of self-synchronization across the Corps. You can check it out HERE.